Cascading Semarang for Inclusive Growth

Semarang

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Indonesia
Tablet - Desktop
Mobile
Tablet - Desktop
Mobile
Tablet - Desktop
Mobile

Client

Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO)

Project

Comprehensive water masterplan for a 1.5 million inhabitant city

Stages

2018 Masterplan strategy
2019 Feasibility study

Team

MLA+: Markus Appenzeller, Emanuel Dad Khan, Olaf Gerson, Anna Khodyreva, Wenchi Yang, Robert Younger
FABRICations, UNDIP, Witteveen& Bos Indonesia, Deltares, Stichting Deltares, UNISSULA, IDN Liveable Cities, Roy Kraft van Ermel

Awards

2020 Dutch Design Awards, Best Commissioning

We changed

Strategies for a sinking city

Transformation

+ Water-oriented transformation strategies from regional system scale, to specific implementation strategies

Climate

+ Addressing sea level rise as well as sinking land caused by extensive water extraction and fast rainwater discharge

Collaboration

+ MLA+ leading multidisciplinary project team
+ Regular on-site workshop with stakeholders from local communities and business to national government
+ Funding conference with multinational donor organizations
Many cities find themselves in vicious cycles. Torrential rain during monsoon season leads to massive flooding, which in response leads to massive infrastructure to mitigate it. During dry season in contrast there is a shortage of water. Groundwater is being pumped out of the ground, leading to extreme land subsidence that in turn increases flood risks, especially when the city is in a coastal zone. Semarang, the capital of central Java in Indonesia is such a city.
But these vicious cycles can be broken. By simply keeping the water and storing it rather than discharging it so that No Drop is Lost. By tackling the water problem in a comprehensive way and developing an integrated water master plan, the city not only can solve its water problem but also gets a whole host of new quality open spaces: the rice terrace principle is reintroduced as terraced water storage, the canals in the city not only store more water but also transform from concrete sewers into green linear parks, and the coastal defense currently in planning is more than a bulwark against flooding. It doubles as a barrage for a new sweet water lake. No Drop of Water is Lost and the long term future of the city and its dynamic growth are secured.

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